Café Luxembourg

Café Luxembourg has been the Upper West Side's house bistro since 1983: zinc bar, cream tiles, globe lights, and a menu of French standards — steak frites, omelets, a proper burger — that has resisted every trend since. Its proximity to Lincoln Center means the pre-performance hour hums and the post-performance hour glitters, with musicians and audience members sharing the late tables.

It is the rare neighborhood restaurant that works equally well at every register: a solo brunch at the bar, a long anniversary dinner, a nightcap after the opera. The room has appeared in films because it looks exactly like what it is, which in New York is rarer than it sounds.